Baltimore Sonnets

linocut on handmade paper Having cancer taught me the following: 1.  Take one day at a time 2.  If the day is too long, take one hour at a time 3.  If an hour is too long, take a minute at a time 4.  If a minute is too long, take a deep breath  5.  If a deep breath is too hard, open your door and take a walk I found myself walking a lot, sometimes for hours. life is beautiful  sometimes we need to  look at it through new lenses feel it with recharged emotions by Suzanne Coley Baltimore

  Work I created in 1974!  My mother visited me last week and, to my surprise, she gave me a bag of my childhood artwork.   1974 seems like yesterday, but it was 40 years ago !   My mother even brought my original linoleum cutters, and I want to post them.  When I was a child, I used Speedball linoleum cutters. They were made of wood and cost $1.50.  I carved a lot of architectural structures and landscapes back then, but I am showing you this block because it was my first portrait (of my teacher).  I liked postage stamps back then and I remember thinking how a face would look on a "modern stamp".  We didn't have the Internet to reference anything, and had to draw from live models -- teachers, family, friends, pets, buildings. linocut on dictionary page by Suzanne Coley (block carved 1974,  printed 2014,  limited edition of 40) My first linoleum block portrait carved in 1974. 

Featuring Laurie Anderson Laurie Anderson is a brilliant visual artist who received a graduate degree in sculpture from Columbia University.  She went on to become a pioneer in electronic music and invented several innovative instruments. I love her spirit. I love the way she thinks. I love the way she experiments. I love how she communicates: Three realms beyond the domain of language I (heart) Laurie Anderson!

from ex-library books Paper made with my hand carved molds, 2014 Suzanne Coley new life luna poetry Created in Baltimore by Suzanne Coley

Cancelling Printing Blocks Linocut with gold leaf.  Next step is burnishing. When  I studied with  Judith Solodkin ,  the first woman to graduate from  Tamarind Institute as a Master Lithographer,  I learned a lot about printmaking and limited editions.  One of the many lessons I learned was the importance of cancelling my plates when I was finished with an edition. Applying gold leaf to linocut Cancelling plates ensures the integrity  of the size of my original editions, whether these  editions consist of 5 prints or 75.   Cancelling plates also prevents forgeries.  Retired linocut ready for gilding after applying an adhesive size. I destroy my copper etching plates.  I erase my litho stones.  And I apply  gold leaf to some of my linoleum blocks  as a way of marking their "retirement"  and preventing any further printing. *Note: I usually apply a yellow gilding ...

linocut printed on handmade paper created from ex-library book, Exodus  by Leon Uris Created in Baltimore by Suzanne Coley

some days it comes coded  quick like air i open my heart everything i am  trapped on paper a currency that can't buy food Created in Baltimore by Suzanne Coley

  Brown University Ifa Bayeza An award-winning playwright. A gifted novelist. A great teacher. A wonderful friend. This is how Ifa introduces her new play: A Liberal's Interpretation of Creative Non-Fiction  A Comedy, Like Life, Tinged with a Touch of the Tragic A New Play About the Eccentricities of Family This One Happening to Be My Own *** Welcome to Wandaland written by  Ifa Bayeza directed by  Carl Hancock Rux Writing Is Live Festival at Brown University February 20-23, 2014 Opening night: February 20, 2014 at 7:00pm George Houston Bass Performing Arts Space - Churchill House See you there!

a language we understand when words become tangled no one controls the Rights of color and form equality  created in Baltimore by Suzanne Coley

"The ball is snapped and someone is tearing your head off." Wynton Marsalis Today is my one year blogiversary and I want to do something different: I would like to talk about NFL running back Barry Sanders .  How he created openings when there was none.  How he dashed, darted, scuttled, weaved, sprinted, twisted, zigzagged, crisscrossed, turned, doubled back, and pushed forward, all with 350 lbs on his back, 350 lbs on his legs, 350 lbs on his neck, and 380 lbs on his arms.  He kept running, heading for the end zone.  Touchdown. Wynton Marsalis , Director of Jazz studies at Juilliard  explains the metaphysical aspect of "art" that is Barry Sanders. Jazz Musician Wynton Marsalis introduces NFL running back Barry Sanders 

Phenomenal! I just returned to Baltimore and watched   Soulful Symphony , a 75 piece symphony orchestra founded by composer/conductor Darin Atwater, on Maryland Public Television .  They performed songs of my childhood. Sometimes I don't have words for great music. Please Listen Soulful Symphony with Darin Atwater based in Baltimore, Maryland They performed my favorite childhood song, A City Called Heaven. It is not on the Internet yet, and I hope they upload their performance soon. These are some of the lyrics of A City Called Heaven I am a poor pilgrim of sorrow I'm tossed in this wide world alone No hope I have for tomorrow I've started to heaven my home Sometimes I am tossed and driven, Lord Sometimes I don't know where to roam I've started to make it my home ***

Amazing!  That's all I could utter when I opened the white clamshell cardboard box and pulled out 39 individual artist's books and read their stories.  The handmade artist's books came in different sizes and had various constructions.   Carnegie Mellon University Libraries - Hunt Library collection of ISCA Quarterly, Summer 1994 Founded in New York City in 1981 by Louise Neaderland, International Society of Copier Artists (ISCA) created a visual language with the medium of xerographic prints and manipulations that explored political, social and cultural life of their time.   Volume 1, No. 1 was printed in April 1982.    The last quarterly was Volume 21, No. 4 , printed in June 2003. Artist's books created for Vol. 12, No.4, Summer 1994 ISCA Collection of Hunt Library, Librarian Mo Dawley These are the artists who created original artist's books for the  ISCA, 9th Annual Bookworks Issue Volume 12, Number 4, Summer 19...

  Hunt Library Tuesday in Pittsburgh was damp and snowy, and it was comforting to enter Hunt Library and be greeted with the gentle murmur of an espresso machine in an open café on the left.   The atmosphere was elegant and cool, much like the aluminum and glass design of the building itself.    I quickly got a cup of coffee, peeled off my wet coat and relaxed on one of the lounge chairs.    It was easy to get comfortable, but I had an appointment to visit the Artist’s Book collection on the 4 th floor. Managed by librarian Mo Dawley , the Artist’s Book collection contains over one thousand zines, livres d’artistes, and artist’s books.   They include handmade one-of-a-kind, limited edition, small press editions, and quarterlies, such as Louise Neaderland’s ISCA (International Society of Copier Artists). Louise Neaderland's I.S.C.A. Quarterly, 9th Annual Bookworks Issue The I.S.C. A. Quarterly, Summer 1994, Opening the bo...

Hand printed postcards with custom stamps are my favorite way of saying "thank you" and keeping in touch. I mail them from the  National Postal Museum in Washington, DC as they hand cancel each stamp. My postcards also form interesting patterns  when pasted together. created in Baltimore  by Suzanne Coley

I love creating designs for the covers of my  artist's books and journals. Most books are layered with multiple textures. Ten years ago I stopped buying book cloth and decorative papers and began making my own.